


A Light in the Darkness

by MegumitheGreat



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Crossover, Insecurity, Introspection, M/M, One Shot, reassurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 21:19:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18302147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: Your shining light in the darkness…From the way you talk about him, it sounds like you love him…If that were the case, why not make it simple for yourself, and come clean to him?Is that a fear that you have?I’m sure he feels the same way, and he’s like him…You find sanctuary in each other, so it’s natural to be afraid of what’s to come…That’s a very real possibility, isn’t it…When the times come, will you be ready to accept the outcome?Face your fears, because even if he’s gone, your love will still reach him…Even you have anxieties…You’re still not sure yourself, so you can’t tell him…Whatever your decision, don’t think twice, and follow your heart.It was like staring into a mirror…We pray and hope for a better future…And that you will be the white light that outshines the darkness.





	A Light in the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ShepherdSoreyDidNothingWrong (Sagnessagiel)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagnessagiel/gifts).



> This got WAY longer than intended and went the complete OPPOSITE of what was intended. And there's really no plot so, idk how or why other than I just like to write about their insecurities, anxieties, and obliviousness. Disclaimer: I love SoRiKai, but considering how weird SoKai was handled in KH3, I'm a bit biased at the moment. I do think that no matter who ends up with Sora, the third person would be happy and supportive. SorMik, though, is...yeh.
> 
> I've worked hard on finishing this so I can have something else to post today, so please leave a comment! I hope I've done SoRiku justice since I've never written for the ship, and I hope the similarities to SorMik are just as evident to you as they were to me! Additionally, listening to the orchestral versions of certain songs really made this a trip.

In the infinite nexus that was the vast galaxy called the Sea of Other Skies, a single mobile called a Gummi Ship drifted alone. Its pilots were in no particular rush nor knew exactly where they were headed. After a brief respite, they had decided to fly back to the world where their comrades were gathering to combat the ever-encroaching darkness that threatened to swallow everything. Somewhere along the way, a sudden flare had thrown them off-course, the ship being flung into a separate section of space that no one they knew had ever explored. With no immediate way to return to their side of the universe, they simply kept going and going until, finally, they arrived at a world that seemed to be split in half.

The two pilots were two of the Guardians of Light fighting against the darkness. Sora was rather happy-go-lucky despite his hardships while his best friend Riku was far calmer. Chestnut-brown hair and sparkling blue eyes, Sora was always ready for an adventure, especially when he could help a passerby out. Riku’s thirst for travel had been dampened over the year’s journey that he and his companion had been wrapped up in, but on the bright side, it awarded him with a chopped mop of silver and cleared green eyes. He had something of an advantage as well as a purveyor of light—he had accepted the darkness that dwelled in his heart and used it to make him strong enough to protect the ones that mattered to him.

The world before them was split in half, metaphorically speaking. From where they hovered in space, they saw two kingdoms—well, a kingdom and an empire. Blue and red soldiers were meshing and mixing together in a dusty whirlwind of arrows and smoke, fires blazing all around them. The world had been torn apart by war, yet there was a small light shining from it as well. It flickered like a little star until an all-too-familiar sea of darkness began to wash toward it like a tidal wave.

“Did you see that?” Sora asked Riku, though he knew that he had. It was almost like a reflex now—the disappearance of light elicited an automatic worry, a desire to help, or some sort of hybridization of the two. Nevertheless, there was a compelling feeling that they needed to provide some sort of assistance. “We’ve got to check it out!”

“I agree,” Riku replied. “Engaging the landing protocol.”

The Gummi Ship never actually landed on a world unless the denizens were familiar with it. Judging on the setting of the world, they could not afford anyone to see it and all its squishy technology. Instead, Sora and Riku were simply teleported down onto the surface far away from civilization.

Where they had ended up was the outskirts of the raging battlefield, and everywhere they turned, horrific monsters thrice their sizes gnawed on the fallen corpses among the mounds of dirt and debris. Those dressed in red armor had become oversized lizards. Those in blue had become saber-toothed tigers. All of them had the foul stench of death and wisps of darkness lifting from their bodies. The battlefield that they had come to was nothing more than a cesspool of wickedness.

“Lailah! Edna!” a desperate voice called out. “Mikleo! Mikleo, answer me!” Following the cries of names, the voice hitched. Its owner must have been grabbed or attacked by something. “Let…go…!”

Sora and Riku scanned the area as best as they could through the smoke; up on a plateau, a young man around their age had been held up by his neck. He wore a ceremonial cloak and feathered ear cuffs. In his right hand was a small ornamental sword.

“Mik…le…o!” he called out again. “ _Luzro—ov!_ ”

The monster that had him by his throat squeezed hard.

“He’s in trouble!” Sora gasped. “What are these things?!”

“We can figure that out later,” Riku said. “We need to help him!”

The two raced up to the plateau while avoiding the heavy blows that pulverized the ground from the monsters scattered about. They leapt up the side, and when they finally arrived, the young man in the ceremonial garb looked to be fading in the grasp of the monster.

“Fire!” Sora called out.

A speeding dart-shaped fireball blasted the monster, and in turn, it forced it to let him go. The young man gagged and coughed, clutching at his throat. He only caught a glimpse of the ones who had come to his rescue before he fainted from the attack. More monsters surrounded them, and they stood over him to defend him.

“What are these two new lights?” a deep omniscient voice rumbled.

Sora and Riku glanced around; these monsters were definitely not the Heartless they had been accustomed to fighting nor were they possessed by them. They inched back closer to the young man on the ground when another voice chanted a spell.

“Violet Storm!” he called out.

A magic circle appeared beneath the claws of the monsters, a great vortex of fire and water and flower petals knocking them back. A slender man appeared, staff in hand and his aquamarine hair swept to the left. His mystical amethyst eyes homed in on them then on fallen youth.

“Sorey!” he gasped. “What did you do to him? Where are the others!?” He knew he wouldn’t get an answer from any of the monsters, but he couldn’t help the anger in him. “There are too many. I have to get him out of here.

“O God of Water, shield us from the prying eyes of death,” he chanted. His body, as well as Sora, Riku, and the one named Sorey; vanished from sight…or so it seemed to the monsters. “We need to hurry. I can only keep up this veil for a short while,” he calmly told the strangers.

Sora and Riku had so many questions but not enough time to ask them. They were reaching for the youth when the spellcaster lifted him onto his back without much of a hassle. He guided them off the battlefield to the nearest threshold into a dense forest with trees that reached far into the sky.

The veil of mist that had shrouded them dissipated shortly after they had found an alcove in the giant tree roots to rest. The supple, porcelain-faced young man wasted no time in addressing Sorey’s injuries. In fact, he outright ignored the presence of the two that attempted the rescue, preoccupied with deep scratches and the bruising around his friend’s neck.

“Damn, I should have been there to help you…but I don’t know what happened,” he grumbled to himself. Water gathered in his hand, and he quietly chanted, “O Holy Fountain, heal my wounds…”

The water glowed softly as if the molecules in it were generating a healing light themselves. The scratches sealed up instantly, the bruising disappearing and leaving no trace. This mysterious spellcaster cupped his cheek in his hand then acknowledged the strangers.

“How strange,” he observed, a finger to his lips. “I can sense it—both of your resonance is almost on par with Sorey’s. How can that be?”

“Resonance?” Sora repeated.

“And you can hear me…I should have realized it back there. You two aren’t from this world.”

Riku flinched. How did this one know already?

“Your style of dress is way too outlandish to be anything from the past or from the present, and your resonance is unnaturally high for a pair of humans,” this man continued.

“Um, can we get a word in?” Sora asked sheepishly. “First, is he going to be okay?” He pointed to Sorey. “Whatever that thing was attacking him, it really did a number.”

“Sorey will be fine; I’ve taken care of worse injuries than that. Now, before I wash you back out into the chaos in Glaivend Basin, tell me who you are.”

“I’m Sora.”

“My name is Riku,” the silver-haired young man said.

“Even your names are strange—a convention definitely from a different world, though I can’t say it’s that weird.”

“And your name?”

“I guess it’s alright to tell you if you’re as pure as Sorey. My name is Mikleo.”

“Mikleo, huh? Talk about a weird name.”

Mikleo rolled his eyes. He asked them how they had come to arrive in the middle of a war that had been going on for years, but their vague answers only made him more suspicious. He gripped his staff, standing between them and Sorey.

“If you’re here to abuse the Shepherd’s power, then I will gladly silence you myself,” he warned them.

“H-Hold on a second! Geez!” Sora panicked. “Look, we can’t tell you where we came from, but we can tell you that…we sensed a lot of darkness and saw a light. I think that light might have been your friend, Sorey. If that’s the case, let us at least help you out.”

Mikleo slowly relaxed. He had to admit that just before they came, he had been swept away in darkness—malevolence as it was called in this world. His other friends had gone missing at the same time, which made him worry about Sorey.

“So this malevolence is caused by someone called the Lord of Calamity?” Riku questioned. “Sounds a lot like our situation back home. And Sorey is the Shepherd…he’s basically a Guardian of Light in this world.” He thought about it for a little while. “Maybe if we help you defeat the Lord of Calamity, things will get better.”

“Sorry, but that’s…” He seemed reluctant to speak. “That’s the task and fate of the Shepherd. Only Sorey can fight against the Lord of Calamity Heldalf.”

Mikleo turned to the Shepherd after sensing his awakening. Without hesitation, he knelt at his side and urged him not to move too much. When he asked him if he had saved him, Mikleo shook his head. He told them that Sora and Riku had freed him from the hellion that had caught him.

“Sora? Riku?” Sorey said. “Oh, the two from earlier!” He stood up despite Mikleo’s protests. He was still somewhat woozy, but he wanted to formally thank the ones who came to his rescue when Mikleo couldn’t. His friend brought him up to speed, which did nothing to make him suspicious of his new friends. He didn’t mind that they wouldn’t talk about where they were from; the fact that Mikleo had figured out that they were from a world different from their own was enough to pique his interest about them. “I’m Sorey!” he finally introduced himself.

“They know that,” Mikleo sighed.

Still, one question remained for either party. How did Sora use magic? How did Mikleo use magic?

Sorey explained first. Mikleo was a water seraph. Normally, he was invisible to humans, imperceptible to the eye and ear, yet objects that they touched without infusing their power looked to be levitating like poltergeists. Their affinity and control over their elements were the source of their magical power. Seraphim were vulnerable to the malevolence, and if they surrendered to the darkness, they transformed into a dragon.

Alternatively, Sora and Riku’s magic power derived from the power of the mystical weapons they carried. Shaped like keys, their Keyblades augmented their athletic abilities and magical prowess. Only those worthy of wielding it were allowed to hold it, and out of curiosity, both Sora and Sorey wondered if the Shepherd could wield it. Mikleo was opposed at first, still wary of the newcomers, but he couldn’t deny that he was interested in seeing as well.

Sora held his Keyblade to Sorey. “Just try to hold it,” he invited him, a toothy grin stretching the corners of his mouth. “If you’re not worthy, it’ll just come back to me.”  
Sorey and Mikleo glanced at each other first. Then, carefully, the Shepherd took hold of the Keyblade. They watched with anticipation, but even after a few minutes, the Keyblade remained in Sorey’s hand.

“You must really be a Guardian of Light,” Riku stated.

Mikleo pouted when he realized that Sora was looking at him with a knowing look. “I-I knew it would stay,” the water seraph embarrassedly said. “Sorey grew up with seraphim, and he’s the Shepherd, so naturally he’s got a pure heart.”

“Aw, Mikleo, you don’t need to get so flustered about it,” Sorey giggled.

He looked up at the canopy over them. Through the holes in the leaves, dusk had arrived. It was going to be night soon, and it would be dangerous to go through Volgran Forest then when hellions were running amok. Still, despite his efforts to make sense of the situation, he couldn’t understand why things had become like this. They had fought in Glaivend Basin before, but the malevolence had surged more this time. There were more hellions running around. He wanted to get somewhere safe so he could think of a strategy, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure if it was smart to explain everything that had happened to Sora and Riku. He trusted them enough, but what good would it do them to tell outsiders what was happening? And his friends had gone missing.

“Tintagel Ruins is still here,” Sorey said after Sora tried to ask him what he was thinking about. “I think the Sparrowfeathers left some rations behind just in case, so we can stay there for the night.”

“Sparrowfeathers?” Riku echoed.

“A merchant’s guild that our friend leads,” Mikleo quickly explained. Outsiders or not, no one could know the truth about the guild. “Anyway, I agree. Let’s head over there and reason things out.”

As they walked, Sorey and Mikleo led them to the former hideout of the Sparrowfeathers. Sora and Riku were still mystified by the environment of this world. The trees just seemed to get bigger and bigger the deeper they went into the forest. The hellions that surrounded them took the form of giant weaponized birds or plants—even skulking trees. Then Riku looked toward them.

Sorey and Mikleo were walking so close together, their pinkies entwined. Sora hadn’t noticed; he was taking in all that he could. But the silver-haired Keyblade wielder did. Such a gesture was strange. Was it because they were alone in the forest? No, they had two new people behind them, yet they weren’t holding hands. He focused on them, trying to figure out if there was some secret romance between them or if they were just happy that they were safe with each other.

Romance?

How could that thought possibly have crossed his mind? His face felt hot with embarrassment. There was nothing wrong with it, but why did he conclude that? Then again, it seemed like a secret romantic gesture.

“Mikleo…” he overheard Sorey whisper.

“Not now…” Mikleo whispered back.

They stopped before the ladder that disappeared into the darkness beneath them leading into the ruins. Sorey went down first, then Mikleo, then Riku, then Sora. Nothing much had changed from the last time that Sorey and Mikleo had been there. The ruins had been deserted, yet beds still remained, and some crates with nonperishables lined the walls. The door leading further back in to the ruins was still wide open, but there was a blessing over the ruins that weakened them and kept them at bay. Oish, the guardian seraph protecting the ruins, was still there close to the mural that depicted the trials that Sorey, as Shepherd, had to overcome.

The beds in one of the chambers had collected dust, but they were easy to clean off. Once the dust had been cleared, Sora and Sorey each took a bed to lie down and relax. Mikleo wanted to talk about what to do like his Shepherd had planned. In lieu of their current situation, though, he supposed some rest would be better. He discreetly touched his lips.

“Mikleo, can I ask you something?” Riku nervously asked. He saw his opportunity with the brunets falling asleep on the beds. Mikleo looked at him quizzically. “Uh, in private, if you don’t mind.” The water seraph was even more suspicious, but he allowed him his time. Riku led his back to the ladder, climbing up. By now, the sun had completely vanished, and in a small section of the canopy, twinkling stars were visible. Riku turned to face him, quickly bowing first. “Please forgive me for what I’m going to ask.”

“W-What?” Mikleo stammered.

“I…”

He didn’t know how to start.

“Well, I couldn’t help but notice that you and Sorey were holding hands—er, fingers.”

The air grew cold, amethyst eyes opening wide in surprise.

“Y-You saw that?!”

“I just happened to see it!” Riku fell silent. They had to be careful not to speak too loudly. “I just wanted to ask, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but you and Sorey…” He knew he was infringing on their privacy. “Are you and Sorey a couple?”

Mikleo was frozen.

“Ahem, I’m sorry. The thing is…maybe I can confide…in you.”

The water seraph relaxed at once. Confide? Why would an outsider—someone he had just met—want to confide? Then again, people confided in strangers that knew nothing. He had to ask him what this was all about. It wasn’t a secret to most people that Sorey and Mikleo were an item as far as their acquaintances went.

“Could it be…?” he murmured.

“If you consider someone most precious to you as someone that you truly love, what would you say?” Riku asked.

Mikleo’s eyes fell onto the moon-stained grass. He walked toward a piece of the ruin that had fallen in time, carefully leaning on it. He’d never forgive himself if any part of the ruin had been damaged by him. Turning his eyes to the moon, he thought about Sorey. “Someone most precious, huh?” he mumbled.

Sorey was his most precious person, and he was Sorey’s one and only. When they were apart, both of them worried about the other. They were always anxious, yet they trusted that each other would be okay. It was paradoxical, and there were times that they fought, but they couldn’t stay angry at each other for very long.

“Take a seat,” Mikleo said. Riku accepted the invitation, sitting next to him on the grass and staring at the moon with him. “Is your precious person Sora?” he asked candidly. Of course, Riku wouldn’t answer. “I see. Why don’t you tell me about him?”

“Huh?”

“If what I think it the issue is true, then maybe I can help you.”

Riku, typically stoic and calm, became flustered. Where was he to begin? He and Sora and their friend Kairi all shared the dream of exploring other worlds, and he knew that Sora had always had feelings for Kairi. At first, they competed for a chance to love her. After over a year of phenomena that intertwined their fates with the fates of others, something had changed. He had never really cared to fall in love with the girl. Sora was the focal point for all the things that happened. The spiky-haired Keyblade wielder sacrificed his heart, sacrificed his memories, and waded in darkness for his friend. They decrypted data and dove into dreams, and in the end of it all, there was a moment that perhaps the feelings were mutual. They had even composed a score together, playing it together across the dreams—Dearly Beloved, it was called. His feelings for Sora had only grown since then. When they were kids, they were best friends, so maybe it was inevitable that his feelings would become what they were now.

But he couldn’t say it.

“Well, what do you feel for Sorey?” he asked instead.

“Sorey…” Mikleo thought for a moment. “Sorey is the only person I feel safe with. He’s kind—probably too kind…and too honest and not very good at lying, but his heart beats the same as mine. When we Armatize, I feel like we are unstoppable.”

“Armatize?”

“It’s a special power bestowed unto the Shepherd. When he says my true name—and before you ask, I will not tell you it—our bodies and minds become one. We share each other’s strength and pain.”

Riku blushed. Perhaps those feelings were too strong to be what he felt for Sora, but he admitted that they had something similar to Armatization. When Sora rescued him from the darkness again while trying to save a friend, they combined their dream Keyblades, and they were in perfect synchronicity.

“So, I guess that means he’s your shining light in the darkness,” Mikleo smiled.

“He is,” Riku finally conceded. “He’s helped me out so much, even…even when I threatened to break his heart. Sora has always tried to help me. He searched for me, and he even cried when he found me in a different form. It…It was nice to know that he was that worried for me.”

Mikleo sensed Riku’s insecurities of the matter. He didn’t know him well enough, but seraphim saw into the hearts of humans. And what he saw as he listened to him talk about the one he held dearest to himself was fear and anxiety. There were cracks, like he had broken himself into pieces to keep Sora safe from the intensity of his feelings. It was pitiable.

“Sorey tried to do that to me once,” Mikleo said. “When he became the Shepherd, we both knew what that meant. The Shepherd had to remain neutral in times of war and vigilant in times of peace. When he took that role, I was afraid that he would get hurt. I was afraid he was going to leave me behind like we left behind our friends back home. He didn’t want me to come with him because he didn’t want me to suffer. Sorey was thinking about me, and I appreciated it. But I couldn’t stand the idea of standing to the side watching him risk his life. I fought back, and I forced my way to be his Sub-Lord. Riku,” Mikleo said as he faced the Keyblade wielder. “If you must be by his side, you must be. Fate and Destiny—two forces that blindly lead us to where we are to go—shall dictate where you stand. If you want to change that, you have to fight back.”

It was the first time in the short while they had been talking or even when they met that Mikleo had such sincere opposition to what was written by the stars. Riku appreciated it. 

“Sora…is like Sorey—he’s kind and honest, but he’s not the smartest guy I know. You and Sorey have expressed your feelings, but me? I don’t think he will ever understand them even if I were to spell it out to him.”

“There, now I can believe it,” Mikleo nonchalantly said. “From the way you talk about him, it sounds like you love him.” He stood up from the ruin. “If that were the case, why not make things simple for yourself, and come clean to him?” He stared at the moon again. “Whether he is smart like Sorey or not, feelings like those always ring the clearest.”

\----------------------------------------

Even though Sorey and Sora had been dozing off when Mikleo and Riku went off to talk in private, they were still awake enough to know they had left. Sora had to wonder what it was that made Riku want to talk to Mikleo so suddenly. Sorey was curious, too, but he wasn’t worried about it. While there were hellions in the forest, Oish’s blessing would protect them.

“When do you think you can leave and go home?” Sorey asked, the sleep waning from his body as he began to inquire more and more in his head about these new people.

“I don’t know,” Sora replied. It was strange how casually he could talk about being from a different world. “We were knocked off from our route, so we’d have to find a way to leave this universe and get back into ours. Might be hard with just the two of us, though.”

Sora sat up, and as if there were tiny treasures in every corner, he looked around the chamber where the Sparrowfeathers had kept their beds. It reminded him of his secret place back home on the Destiny Islands.

“I wonder how everyone else is doing,” he sighed.

“I have to wonder about my friends, too,” Sorey sympathized. “I’m glad Mikleo is with me, but without the others, we won’t stand a chance against Heldalf.”

Sora’s clear cerulean eyes drifted to the Shepherd, a question teetering on his tongue. “Sorey, can I ask you something?” he nervously proposed. “You and Mikleo seem to care about each other a lot. I’m still learning about what it means to love, and I’ve seen all kinds at this point.”

Sorey rolled over. He propped his head on his palms like a teenager ready to gossip.

“How do you see him?” the Keyblade wielder asked.

“Mikleo?” The emeralds that stared at the outsider softened into a dreamy look. Sorey had always want to express his love and admiration of Mikleo, but he was self-conscious about his poetry skills. “He’s the silver moon in my night sky just as I’m his golden sun. We can’t survive without each other, the light passing between us and giving us strength.”

Sora’s eyes widened in amazement. How could he speak so about him if not out of a deep love for him? Was there a point that they were just friends? Or perhaps merely brothers in arms? The question circled back to him, and suddenly Riku came to mind.

“So you really love him, huh?” he bashfully chuckled. “I wonder…”

“I’m not a master poet yet. When Mikleo finally writes his book about the world, I want to write poems for it, or alongside his book, or maybe I can sneak some into the margins.” Such childish antics always amused the Shepherd until he realized that Sora had mentioned something again.

He wondered about Riku at times. They were best friends, but ever since they became Keyblade wielders, their relationship had changed at first for worse then for better. Riku’s attitudes had become so different over time. Sorey asked what he meant by that, and Sora wasn’t quite sure how to explain it.

“Riku and I have always been friends, then when Kairi appeared on our island…I guess we started to kind of compete with each other for her attention,” Sora said. “But then Riku sacrificed himself and locked himself up in the Realm of Darkness. Ah, this probably doesn’t make any sense to you.”

“It doesn’t, but I can figure it out,” Sorey grinned.

“Well, when Riku did that, I thought he was gone. When I found him again, I couldn’t help but cry for him. I had looked everywhere for him. Time and time again, he’s helped me. But lately, I feel like he’s slowly hiding again. He’s not sinking back into darkness. He’s almost vanishing behind others.”

Sorey listened to him without judgment. He was beginning to understand what Sora’s problem was—namely, what _Riku’s_ problem was and why he most likely wanted to speak to Mikleo alone.

Sora went on to talk about how he had reunited with Kairi, and while Sora and Riku had gone through much more together, he had always been fond of the girl. Was Riku beginning to get jealous of Kairi? Was he competing with her for his affection? Sora was too inept to tell, and Sorey was in no position to draw conclusions like that. But still—

“Is that a fear you have?” Sorey asked him.

“Now that I think about it, it is. Riku has worked so hard up to this point to fight back against himself that if he were to fall again, I don’t know what I would do.”

Sora placed his hand over his heart. Was he always that worried about him? He had always focused on Kairi up until he found her again. Now he was thinking back to all the time he had spent with Riku and how they risked their lives to save each other. It was a kind of love—that he knew. But what form? Familial? Platonic? Romantic? What did Riku feel?

“Sora, if you stress out about it, you’ll make the wrong conclusion,” Sorey soothed him. He lay down completely on his bed. “There are times that I worry about Mikleo and if I can ever truly be with him.” His smile disappeared. “Seraphim live basically forever, but humans don’t. But when I learned that we shared these feelings for each other, time stopped becoming an issue. Both of us have a hard time showing our love to each other, but we know it in our hearts. I’m sure Riku feels the same way, and he’s like Mikleo. Emotions are tricky.”

Sora’s mind tried to piece it together. Riku’s idea of love stemmed from pushing his most precious person away as much as he could to keep him safe. His idea of love stemmed from sacrificing himself if he had to. But never once did Riku explicitly say or show his love.

He thought back to Kairi. Would Kairi be upset with the way it turned out? He loved her, too. As time went on in that little chamber, however, he wondered if she would be okay if he gave Riku a chance. They were all supportive of each other, so perhaps she wouldn’t mind. And if it worked out?

“I don’t know what to think,” Sora sighed, an anxious tremble in his quiet voice. “I love both of them so much. No matter how much I think, though, I can’t disregard what Riku has done for me—both in his mistakes and his redemptions.”

Sorey sat up with a proposal of his own. “How do you feel about him?”

“He’s one of the people I want to always protect.”

“Is that your duty, or is that how you really feel?”

Sora paused. Duty and power to protect those that mattered, or vulnerability and the freedom to reflect the feelings that one had given him. He felt like he had to protect Kairi because of who she was as a Princess of Heart and as a dear friend, but he already lived comfortably being close to Riku that there was no precedent other than that he wanted to be by his side.

“Does that mean…” Sora murmured. “But…when the final battle comes…”

“You find sanctuary in each other, so it’s natural to be afraid of what’s to come,” the Shepherd concluded. “That all said, I think I have an idea of how to get you and Riku home! We can head to our home. Gramps can probably help you out!”

The segue from the previous conversation to the next completely threw Sora for a loop. Nevertheless, he appreciated that Sorey was trying to help them return to whence they came. 

By the time Mikleo and Riku came back inside, they had fallen asleep. There were more than enough beds for them all to rest independently of each other. Mikleo and Sorey had always slept together, and the water seraph wasn’t going to stop now after the conversation he had had with the silver-haired Keyblade wielder. He wormed his way into Sorey’s arms as he slept.

Riku was beside himself with what to do. He couldn’t bring himself to sleep with Sora that way. Not when his feelings for him were still locked away tightly in a secret box at the bottom of the ocean of his heart. He took himself to another bed, falling asleep in a few minutes.

\-------------------------------------

“We’re going to Elysia?” Mikleo asked incredulously in the morning. “How are we going to make it there? The war is still going on! And do we even have time for that? We have to look for Lailah and the others!”

“Yeah, but what if they disappeared because Sora and Riku appeared?” Sorey postulated. He tried to reason it out. If Sora and Riku had come on some sort of flying ship unbeknownst to the world they were in, who was to say that such a contraption did not do something to erase their friends? “It doesn’t sound like it makes sense, but…the Lord of Calamity can change the land with just the snap of his fingers.”

“Sorey, listen to yourself…”

“Mikleo, think about it!”

Sora couldn’t help but scratch his head in confusion. He admitted that it wasn’t the first time that such an event would occur. He and Riku had traveled to worlds that had been bisected into mirrors of themselves, and more than likely that could have happened when they entered the world. Mikleo still had a hard time believing it, but he didn’t feel like arguing the metaphysics of their world. After all, it could have just been the work of one of their enemies. He conceded, though. He never liked arguing with Sorey unless it was about time periods and archaeological details.

“That settles it then!” Sorey beamed not out of triumph but out of the belief that there was a way to fix this.

The four boys emerged from the Tintagel Ruins, following the Shepherd to the road leading back to the basin where war continued. Just to the side, past a small creek, there was a hidden cave. Sorey pulled a worn book from its holster seated on his rear. He eagerly showed his water seraph a faded map that detailed a little detour from the Volgran Forest to the Bors Ruins just outside of a city called Marlind. Mikleo scoffed, embarrassed that he had been schooled about alternate routes back to their home by his history rival.

They felt their way through the dark cave called Lamorak Cave. They navigated the maze-like ruins just outside of it. They ran over fields and hills of lush green grass until they came to the overhanging rock that gave a perfect view of the city known as Ladylake, the base of the Hyland.

“Wow, what a sight!” Sora gawked. “Hey, before we head to Elysia, can we check out that city?”

Sorey and Mikleo exchanged looks. Riku didn’t seem to mind the stop, and they did need a break from running into and away from hellions. The Keyblade wielders expressed varying degrees of excitement; however, they were still perturbed that they hadn’t seen any Heartless. Perhaps it was because that world lie beyond the reaches of Xehanort and his minions. Or perhaps the darkness manifested as the hellions that they had come to learn about. Sorey and Mikleo were adept at fighting them off, and they were mystified by the silver flame that engulfed them after they were struck down.

They walked down the side of the lookout site, and Mikleo walked with Sora while Riku and Sorey walked farther ahead. They didn’t say anything to each other, and once they crossed the threshold into Ladylake and checked into the inn for food and bedrest, the water seraph decided that after all the fighting, running around, and sleeping in a dusty ruin; he wanted to enjoy a warm bath.

“We can all bath together!” Sorey happily suggest as he made his way to the door. Mikleo pulled him back toward the bed by the collar of his Shepherd’s cloak. “Gah! Mikleo!”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to Sora about something,” the seraph replied. “And at least he’ll not talk to me when others are present. Remember, regular humans can’t see me, so you just end up looking like a basket case.”

“I’m sure everyone in Ladylake is aware that I can see you.”

“Yet if people see toiletries or a towel around my waist floating around, they’ll run out of this building.”

Mikleo was trying hard to come up with excuses to keep Sorey from following him into the bath, and while he did, there was something of a reluctance that the chestnut-haired outsider detected. He followed his new friend at his behest to the bath room. By the time that he had entered, the water seraph was already naked and sitting in the hot water. At first, he felt uncomfortable—the idea that Sorey would be glaring from the door at them intruded his mind, but Mikleo assured him that Sorey wasn’t the jealous type but the oblivious type.

He slowly stepped in, the warmth slowly wrapping him up and soothing his soul. Ladylake’s baths at the inn were nice if a little too stuffy and lavished. The ones in Marlind were open-air and included the sauna. That was neither here nor there. There was a pressing matter at hand.

The water seraph was a person of beauty, and Sora completely understood how Sorey was enamored with him. There was a certain grace to him that he had seen at times in Riku. His face turned red. Again?

“What?” Mikleo asked.

“N-Nothing!” Sora quickly replied. “Um, so why did you call me to come with you? What about Sorey?”

Mikleo’s eyes widened for just a moment before he looked away in thought. There was something that he could never tell Sorey. No matter how close they were, he simply could not tell him. Riku and Sora both thought that they had confessed to each other their true feelings, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Mikleo’s love for Sorey wasn’t completely out in the open—their mingling with each other was only a product of the years they had lived and journeyed together. Even though he had told Sorey his true name and solidified their bond, he could never say that he loved him more than he would ever know. Would Sorey understand that extent? Would he feel the same intensity of emotion that he felt and bottled up? What was going to happen at the end?

“I figured you spoke with Sorey, and you probably developed your first impression of him by now,” he cautiously said.

“Well, he said that you guys already talked about it. So, I guess so, but why?” Sora countered.

“Because…I…”

This was the first time that he saw the water seraph tremble in fear.

“I’m afraid of losing him…That’s the part he doesn’t know, and I can’t tell him.”

The Shepherd’s duty wasn’t to save every single person. It was to defeat the Lord of Calamity, but the legends always detailed that once the goal was met, they vanished and were never heard from again. Sorey was the next Shepherd, and he couldn’t bear the thought of losing him. What was he going to do? If this journey resulted in death, he was sure to fall into despair and become a dragon. To never see Sorey again or hear him talk about ruins or the past eras or hold his hand—it seized his heart and pained him.

“Mikleo…don’t be upset…” Sora told him, but even he was unsure what to do. He thought back to what he told Sorey. He looked everywhere for Riku until he appeared right under his nose as someone else. He never lost hope that he would find him, but he couldn’t deny it. “It’s a very real possibility, isn’t it…”

When Mikleo fell to his knees in the bath, the water came up to his heaving chest. He let his tears fall into the ripples around him. He wouldn’t say that he had kept it all bottled up for so long to even this stranger, but this was one of those times that he was glad to have been born a water seraph. Seeing his misty reflecting in the water revealed to him how much he was hiding from his one and only.

Why should they save the world if it meant that the only one that mattered to him—the only one that shared the dream of coexistence and supported the only human that ever showed more compassion than anyone else—what would it all mean if it mean that he had to vanish like those in the legends of old? How could destiny and duty be so cruel to take him away? What if their friends never came back, and he was doomed to exist alone in the world of their ideals?

Sora wanted to comfort him in Sorey’s stead. He knew that if the Shepherd had heard of any of this, his heart would break for him. And he couldn’t say anything. He wasn’t someone that could see into the future nor someone that understood the laws of that world. He didn’t know the legends or the sordid past that was unbeknownst to all its denizens. But he felt his hurt.

“Riku did the same thing for me…and so have a lot of our friends—people that we’re trying to bring back now,” he told him as a way to give him hope. It didn’t help.

“The only hope there left is if Sorey were to be reborn as a seraph, but…it’s not guaranteed,” Mikleo wailed. “And even if he was reborn, his memories…all of the memories we’ve shared…every aspect of his personality…all of it would be erased.”

Was rebirth the same as a Nobody regaining its heart? Probably not, which hurt Sora more as he listened. Nobodies and Heartless still had their memories and personality when they regained their hearts. But to be reborn as a seraph was the opposite in a way. The things that made them human would drip away in death. But there still had to be a way.

“I can’t tell him that I feel like this…I can’t let him know how scared I am because he might not continue with his journey,” Mikleo whimpered. “I don’t want him to stop, but at the same time I do…”

“I understand,” Sora gently told him. He knelt beside him, placing a hand on his back to reassure him for Sorey. “You really love him, and you want him to stay strong.”

“He is, but he’s…he’s such an idiot! He doesn’t know…”

“But when the time comes, Mikleo, will you be ready to accept the outcome?”

Mikleo looked at him, his amethyst eyes swollen and red from crying. How could he ever be ready for the outcome? But Sora asked him. If Sorey didn’t choose to stop being the Shepherd and continued to keep going to create the world he wanted for the one he loved, would he be able to accept that? Just as he had to keep moving forward when Riku sealed himself away the first time in the Realm of Darkness, could Mikleo walk tall and support that dream in his place?

“I want to help him shape the world into that, more than anything,” Mikleo admitted. “I don’t want to lose him if I don’t have to…”

“But if he has to? You can’t stop him.”

“I know, it’s selfish.”

“It’s okay to be selfish. You want him by your side, and if he’s not, then you have to fight alone. But if you can still carry on, you’ll have the strength for both of you.”

Strength for both of them—Mikleo realized it. It was like when they Armatized. Mikleo’s corporeal form vanished and joined Sorey’s spirit, but the strength he gave him was very real. The pain they felt was shared. He began to understand that Sorey would be hurt by the decision, too; however, he wasn’t just creating a world for everyone to be happy. He was chasing his dream and creating that world for Mikleo.

“Sorey…” he breathed, as if the name of the one he loved most calmed him.

“Face your fears,” Sora told him. He helped him up. “Even if Sorey is gone, your love will reach him. No matter where he goes, your hearts will always be as one.”

\------------------------------------

Sorey was sitting on the edge of his bed with a childish pout. He seemed almost betrayed that Mikleo wouldn’t let him bathe with him but allowed Sora instead. He was too upset to take out his Celestial Record to read, and since that was his way of calming down, he had to be vexed.

Riku sat on the other bed. If they were going to stay the night, he worried about sharing a bed with Sora. They were close and used to sleep with each other as kids, but that was over ten years ago. He tried to figure out the best way to go about the predicament.

That is, until he heard Sorey let out a sigh. The Shepherd didn’t have much of anything else to do, and he hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with Riku yet, so he turned around to face him.

“I can’t believe him!” he complained. “Baths with Mikleo are always fun, but he decided to exclude me this time.”

“Maybe he wanted to get to know Sora,” Riku suggested.

“I know…I’m not really jealous…”

He suddenly looked glum. The truth was that he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his water seraph. Aside from the disappearance of their friends, they still had to stop the Lord of Calamity. There had been several times that either one of them nearly lost their lives, and every time it only made Sorey himself realize how little time they had left together.

He knew the legends as well as Mikleo did. The Shepherds disappeared when the Lord of Calamities were defeated. It was something that he had thought about for a while. They didn’t just become hermits or lose the title and fame. They vanished. Without a doubt, their bodies perished, the overflow of malevolence snuffing out their souls at the very end after being subdued by their lights.

It wasn’t an idea that he liked too much. Sorey didn’t want to become a martyr, but he was prepared to sacrifice himself for his dream. The only thing that held him back was Mikleo. He couldn’t leave him behind. Likewise, he didn’t want to take him along for whatever outcome would happen. Mikleo wasn’t a pet bird to keep caged up or to toy with. If he had to give himself up for his goal without losing his very essence, he wouldn’t be second-guessing himself every day.

“What exactly do you have to do?” Riku asked him. He learned on his arm towards him.

“The legends don’t say, but…more than likely I will have to go somewhere alone,” Sorey said. “I might have to die, or I lose my physical form and exist only as a concept. I might have to go to sleep for a very long time. No matter what I imagine the outcome to be, Mikleo is going to be all alone for longer than I can bear. He might have to grow up and become old without me.”

“Both of you really can’t live without each other, huh?”

“No. Maybe at this point, we’re symbiotic.” Sorey tried to smile, but Riku saw his sadness through it. “Mikleo…probably thinks about this a lot, too. He didn’t want me to become the Shepherd, and sometimes I thought about quitting like he wanted.” He looked into Riku’s eyes. “Do you pray for a better world for Sora?”

“T-That’s kind of point-blank!” Riku blushed. But he conceded that he did. As the person that hurt Sora the most and was working on redeeming himself, he wished for Sora’s happiness no matter who he loved or what happened.

The gentle Shepherd smiled. He wanted to seraphim and humans to coexist just like he and Mikleo did, and in creating that world, he wanted Mikleo to travel freely without fear of wickedness. Everyone had experienced horrible things. While he and Mikleo were fortunate not to have some event like that in their lives, he worried that if he didn’t defeat the Lord of Calamity, the water seraph would get hurt.

He had learned from one of their friends that water was easily corrupted by malevolence, but ice wasn’t. Mikleo was typically icy to those he didn’t know, and Riku agreed based on their first interaction. Sorey didn’t want him to be like that. He deserved to experience the joys of the world including the love he held for Sorey. And if Sorey wasn’t in that world they so desperately wanted to nurture, he didn’t want him to shut himself off out of sorrow.

“If I hadn’t grown up with him, I wouldn’t have this dream. To create a world where there is peace—wouldn’t you think it’s the perfect declaration to him?” Sorey asked with a sweet smile.

At first, Riku couldn’t tell if he was being serious, but then he began to think about it. Sorey was creating a world in the image of their love, and if he could give the world to Mikleo, then everything would be okay, right?

“But he’s not okay with this,” Riku assumed.

“Not at all. I know how he feels; he doesn’t have to tell me when it’s been more obvious than he thinks. The idea that we have to go our separate ways must hurt him so much, but he won’t ever say it because he doesn’t want to hurt my feelings. That’s why I have to achieve this dream. My lasting legacy and my declaration to him.”

“Even you have anxieties like this,” Riku said. He felt relieved almost. Sorey, who seemed like he knew what he wanted, was just as afraid as he was. He wanted the best for Mikleo just like he did for Sora. “If things weren’t like this, what would you do?”

“H-Huh?” Sorey uttered. “I…I don’t know, I guess we’d go about what we would have done together. Travel to undiscovered ruins, write books and poetry and all we could write…I…I don’t think I could ever tell him how I felt if we just lived normally. And…I wouldn’t have a chance at living together with him.”

“What do you mean?”

Sorey grew even more despondent. Everyone in Elysia knew there would be a day that he would return to the world of humans and live among them. They thought he would forget them and lose the resonance that they had cultivated in him. But every time he remembered that that was an inevitability that they were waiting for, he thought about how lonely Mikleo would be. He’d have to watch him grow up, probably get married to someone else, have a family, and die as a regular human with no seraphic influence. Or he would be ostracized because of his high resonance. People who could see the seraphim were treated as freaks and bullied. If Mikleo were to see to that…

“Even if the situation is terrible now, I wouldn’t trade it away for anything. Mikleo is too important to me to just abandon like that. But still, the possibility that we have to separate…”

“Well, on the bright side, you’re still not sure yourself, so you can’t tell him anything of what is to come. At this point, you don’t know what could happen, just like Sora and I don’t know what lies ahead for us.”

“I know, but…I want to use what time I do have to just hold onto him. I want to stay with him forever even though I can’t.” The Shepherd hugged himself. “One day, maybe I can tell him how I feel.”

“So tell him now,” Riku bluntly said.

“What!? That’s not poetic at all! And…And he’d get so nervous, and I would get nervous!”

Riku couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. Sorey didn’t seem like the poetic type though he was romantic, but he supposed that something as important as confessing his love should be poetically romantic in its own right.

“Well, whatever your decision, don’t think twice, and follow your heart.

\---------------------------------------

Sorey, Mikleo, Sora, and Riku set out for Aroundight Forest the next morning. Whatever secrets had been exchanged among them remained hidden, the time not quite right to set them free. The blessing that the Shepherd and his water seraph had known since they were babies was still there and still keeping hellions at bay away from their home. It was so strong, resonating through the forest like an ethereal song. The paths that Sorey had cut when they first started their journey had grown over again, and while he didn’t mind clearing them again, he didn’t want to arrive home covered in mud and broken twigs and dead leaves.

Sora and Riku were yet again curious of the forest, and as they grew nearer and nearer to the top of the mountain, that curiosity only bloomed. They came to the end of the forest and into the light that never seemed to dim of Elysia.

“Sora, Riku, we want to welcome you to our home,” Sorey grinned.

Sora and Riku were met with a springtime scenery at the top of the mountain. From the edge, they saw green land stretching as far as the eye could see, taller mountains all around them teasingly obscured by wispy cirrus clouds. White birds soared above. The grass was just as green as below, dotted with tiny flowers that the two had made into flower crowns when they were younger. The decorative arch that marked the entrance of Elysia towered over them, seraphim of all ages outside enjoying the weather.

“And this is our family,” Mikleo introduced.

“Sorey and Mikleo are back!” Medina celebrated.

“So soon?” Lawrence questioned.

“And they brought more humans!?” Natalie hissed.

“Wait, they’re pure!” Cynthia gasped.

The seraphim approached them cautiously, peering into their hearts before realizing that they were from somewhere else. Sorey abated their curiosity by telling them that they were just going to see the chief to help send them home. He led Sora and Riku deeper into the village. The Shepherd pointed to his house, noting that he had his own house, then to the only house at the top of the hill.

“That’s Gramps’ house,” he told them.

“He’s probably going to be mad since we did leave without telling anyone,” Mikleo guessed.

“Maybe!”

“So Sorey and Mikleo grew up in a place of light…” Sora said with awe.

“Completely cut off from other humans…” Riku added.

They entered Gramps’—Zenrus’—house. When they saw who had taken care of the two, they couldn’t believe it. He stood maybe only three feet tall, but he had to be thousands of years old. Bushy white eyebrows covered his eyes. His smile held a long golden pipe.

“So you came back?” Zenrus greeted with an ominous tone.

“S-Sorry we left without saying anything, Gramps,” Sorey apologized.

“We were planning on coming sooner to make amends, but…well, we got sidetracked,” Mikleo further explained.

“You could have at least left a note!” Zenrus bellowed. “I should zap you to here and now! You had us all worried sick! What if something had happened? To leave right after Mason’s demise, too!” Before the old seraph beat them with his pipe, he glanced at Sora and Riku. “These two…”

Sorey bowed before him. “Gramps, I was hoping you could send them home,” he humbly requested. “They’re from a different world, but they’ve been stuck here. I thought your blessing could help them.”

Zenrus stroked his beard. “I don’t know if my blessing can do that, but it’s worth a shot, I suppose.” He waddled up to them. “Your names?”

“Sora,” Sora said.

“Riku,” Riku answered.

“Definitely from a different world. Alright, let’s head outside and see what I can do.”

He guided them outside to the center of the village just outside of Sorey’s home. The other seraphim of Elysia gathered around to watch the spectacle with anticipation and wonder. Zenrus raised his hand to the sky, and clouds began to darken and rumbled as they funneled like a tornado. Sora and Riku were apprehensive, but Sorey and Mikleo were unflinching. Lightning flashed across the sky.

As quickly as it had started, the sky brightened again, the dark clouds turning white as they opened up to reveal the Gummi Ship hovering above. The Elysians were frightened by it. Sorey and Mikleo were intrigued.

“The ship!” Sora smiled. The strange contraption in his back pocket began to ring loudly, and again the seraphim were wary of them. Sorey and Mikleo, mystified by this small square contraption with a large screen, stepped closer for a look. Sora pressed the green button, and two little chipmunks appeared. “Chip and Dale!”

“We finally got through!” Dale happily said. The chipmunks grew wide-eyed; denizens of an outside world had seen them. “S-Sora, we’ll call you back once you’re on the ship.”

“Yeah, this is a violation of the Order that King Mickey is trying to preserve,” Chip stammered. “Call us back when you board!”

Then the screen went black.

“Whoa, what was that?” Sorey ogled. “Give it here, I want to check this thing out!”

Sora pulled it away from him. “I can’t let you do that,” he nervously said. He knew he and Riku were going to be in trouble later. “Sorey, Mikleo, it was so nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, even if it wasn’t for a long time at all, meeting you two—it was like staring into a mirror,” Riku told them.

“We feel the same way,” Mikleo said with something of a playful smirk.

“Do you think we can see you again?” Sorey asked.

“Probably not; our worlds exist in two separate universes cut off by special boundaries,” Riku explained, aware that the Elysians were listening to them. “But even if we never do, you’ve helped us out.”

“Likewise,” Sorey smiled. “And if we can’t see you again, then allow us.” Sorey and Mikleo knelt down, placing their hands together and closing their eyes in silence. Together, they said:

“Even if we never see each other again, we shall pray and hope that each of our worlds are a better place than now. Filled with peace and love, may the wickedness stay far away, and that you will be the light that outshines the darkness.”

Sora and Riku didn’t know what to say to the prayer, but they wished them the same good luck. Each of them had secrets to guard, their hearts like little treasure chests. The feelings that they held were only fledglings, but Sorey and Sora and Mikleo and Riku knew that one day those secrets they shared would grow into majestic birds of wonder that flew on the wings of their love for each other.

In moments, Sora and Riku were beamed up to the strange airship that had appeared. One moment it was there, the next moment it flew back into the Sea of Other Skies. Not long after, Sorey and Mikleo saw their friends at the gate of Elysia.

**Author's Note:**

> So, uh, yeah, I wanted to do in similar fashion to the games and have the little monologues. I just really like the monologues! And what can I say, I LOVE an emotional Mikleo. And an altruistic Sorey.
> 
> The ending is a bit abrupt, but I've never been good at them and I needed to end it before it got any longer. But I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it!


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